I want to add cyrillic glyphs to a font I made called Anivers. Because cyrillic is not familiar to me I would very much appreciate some input on this. Spacing and kerning still need to be done...
I don't think this set complements your original style of Anivers. It has some poetic strokes in it. Basically only letters that are the same in both alphabest hold that. All the others are rather much more geometric. A tweak here an there and I think it could be a nice complement to your Roman set.
Thanks for commenting. I think you're right, but because many lc glyphs are based on uppercase shapes I find it difficult to let cyrillic complement the Roman set. Above the glyphs I've adapted. (The 2nd pdf is in the openings post... I don't know how to attach a pdf to this comment...)
Well that's much better. I find them more part of the family now. Regarding the breaking the box rule. I guess you should stay just as much in the box as you did with your Roman set which is quite geometric bust still a little bit humanist.
I like your latest change. Especially the changes on the upper case.
very nice, voobshche!
a couple concerns:
the body of the Ф is nice and large, but the main stroke endings (top and bottom) are likely to get lost at smaller sizes. this stroke can actually overshoot the cap height line and the baseline and will generally improve the appearance of this glyph.
the arms on ЖКжк seem splayed a bit too much to me. if the diagonals could be a bit more upright, i think these glyphs would look better. the ж looks a bit extra wide in the lower case, but i seem to always make mine too narrow, so it might be just right.
the upper bowl on the я could be a bit larger.
Thanks for your input. I've adapted ФЖК and я. жк just a fraction.
I guess when I made the screen of the PDF the ё was not ready yet :)
There's also a new pdf (#3) in the openings post.
Now... on to spacing and kerning...
i prefer your previous rectangular lc forms, because they have some "wave" a bit corresponding to latin lc. please give more play over them, and more play with center-crossed lowercases like -в-я-з- maybe something like your -a- or -e- forms?
you can make left leg in -л- (and -д-) more flowing, and make diagonal in -и-й- (and even horizontal in -н-) less geometric.
-м- looks unclear for me, -П-п- looks too wide, -У- and -Я- looks too narrow, -б- looks old-timed, -Й-й- be better with a bit bigger breve.
maybe right oval in -ф- will be better if you mirror them? maybe top of oval in -ь- can follow -b-? and you can animate tails in -ц-щ-
sorry for my english and good luck with this beauty!
Jos,
these new letters is better for me.
maybe try you make -д- wider and -л- a bit narrower?
would you make a more flexible ascender in -б- like a leg in -к-ж-?
and please try to mirror a central element in -в-.
the lowercase б would need some balancing. The tail should be a bit longer, the whitespace above the bowl larger, the bowl shorter. The И is too wide. The д is better but the л still looks clunky. Take a look at the following samples of what I consider well-drawn Cyrillics.
They show Cyrillic mixed with some related Latin letters.
I like first б better. I don't particularly like your ж (I guess я and к are still also the problem), it is very weak at the bottom and bold at the top. I think you should entirely redesign the relation between the lower legs and the top parts in ж, я and к (both UC and lc).
I think л and д are not a bit better, though still not balanced enough. The "shelf" in д is still too short — it realy needs to be visible in small sizes. The LEFT edge of the right tooth in д should be located slightly to the RIGHT of the RIGHT edge of the right stem of д. In other words, the right tooth of д should be clearly off limits of the right stem of that letter.
19 Sep 2007 — 2:20pm
I don't think this set complements your original style of Anivers. It has some poetic strokes in it. Basically only letters that are the same in both alphabest hold that. All the others are rather much more geometric. A tweak here an there and I think it could be a nice complement to your Roman set.
20 Sep 2007 — 3:01am
Thanks for commenting. I think you're right, but because many lc glyphs are based on uppercase shapes I find it difficult to let cyrillic complement the Roman set. Above the glyphs I've adapted. (The 2nd pdf is in the openings post... I don't know how to attach a pdf to this comment...)
20 Sep 2007 — 4:56am
Maybe I should also 'break' the pure rectangular shapes...
20 Sep 2007 — 3:52pm
Well that's much better. I find them more part of the family now. Regarding the breaking the box rule. I guess you should stay just as much in the box as you did with your Roman set which is quite geometric bust still a little bit humanist.
I like your latest change. Especially the changes on the upper case.
20 Sep 2007 — 4:16pm
very nice, voobshche!
a couple concerns:
the body of the Ф is nice and large, but the main stroke endings (top and bottom) are likely to get lost at smaller sizes. this stroke can actually overshoot the cap height line and the baseline and will generally improve the appearance of this glyph.
the arms on ЖКжк seem splayed a bit too much to me. if the diagonals could be a bit more upright, i think these glyphs would look better. the ж looks a bit extra wide in the lower case, but i seem to always make mine too narrow, so it might be just right.
the upper bowl on the я could be a bit larger.
20 Sep 2007 — 5:39pm
The letter ё (0x0451) is curiously missing from the above text though it seems to figure in the font file.
20 Sep 2007 — 5:54pm
What I mean, of course, it that the letter ё is replaced by a blank in the words создаём and определённые.
21 Sep 2007 — 3:46am
Thanks for your input. I've adapted ФЖК and я. жк just a fraction.
I guess when I made the screen of the PDF the ё was not ready yet :)
There's also a new pdf (#3) in the openings post.
Now... on to spacing and kerning...
24 Sep 2007 — 11:44am
oh, i like it, Jos!
i prefer your previous rectangular lc forms, because they have some "wave" a bit corresponding to latin lc. please give more play over them, and more play with center-crossed lowercases like -в-я-з- maybe something like your -a- or -e- forms?
you can make left leg in -л- (and -д-) more flowing, and make diagonal in -и-й- (and even horizontal in -н-) less geometric.
-м- looks unclear for me, -П-п- looks too wide, -У- and -Я- looks too narrow, -б- looks old-timed, -Й-й- be better with a bit bigger breve.
maybe right oval in -ф- will be better if you mirror them? maybe top of oval in -ь- can follow -b-? and you can animate tails in -ц-щ-
sorry for my english and good luck with this beauty!
26 Sep 2007 — 2:38am
Thanks Andrij. I've adapted most shapes. Please let me know what you think.
(There's also a new pdf (#4)).
btw... I visited your site and discovered your very, very beautiful fonts!
Really great stuff!
28 Sep 2007 — 4:16am
Jos,
these new letters is better for me.
maybe try you make -д- wider and -л- a bit narrower?
would you make a more flexible ascender in -б- like a leg in -к-ж-?
and please try to mirror a central element in -в-.
and thank you very much for compliments ))
21 Nov 2007 — 1:11pm
Jos,
the lowercase б would need some balancing. The tail should be a bit longer, the whitespace above the bowl larger, the bowl shorter. The И is too wide. The д is better but the л still looks clunky. Take a look at the following samples of what I consider well-drawn Cyrillics.
They show Cyrillic mixed with some related Latin letters.
YУЯPВЗФQHПИNЧКK
bбcзвяaлдийпфьшкk
Adam
24 Nov 2007 — 5:22am
Wow ... great samples Adam! This should make it a bit more easy for me. I'll make the changes soon.
Andreij, I'm thinking of making the bar in -в- straight as is was before. It just doesn't feel right.
14 Dec 2007 — 4:42am
Adam and Andrij,
Thank you for your comments. I hope that you like the changes (see also pdf #5). Which б do you think is better?
16 Dec 2007 — 9:52am
I like first б better. I don't particularly like your ж (I guess я and к are still also the problem), it is very weak at the bottom and bold at the top. I think you should entirely redesign the relation between the lower legs and the top parts in ж, я and к (both UC and lc).
I think л and д are not a bit better, though still not balanced enough. The "shelf" in д is still too short — it realy needs to be visible in small sizes. The LEFT edge of the right tooth in д should be located slightly to the RIGHT of the RIGHT edge of the right stem of д. In other words, the right tooth of д should be clearly off limits of the right stem of that letter.
Regards,
Adam